Grading Teachers: Kids' Test Scores Must Count

If you want good teachers in the schools, the first step is obvious: Figure out who they are. And not by relying solely on water-cooler chat and subjective judgments but by also looking at rock-hard data on teacher performance. Such common-sense thinking has led Chancellor Joel Klein & Co. to undertake a pilot project to measure and track teachers' results - based on their students' test scores. (Snip) Imagine teachers treated like other professionals - having their performance monitored and quantified, as is routinely done in other fields...

[a 'pilot' program. better late then never I guess]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01282008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/grading_teachers_560403.htm